It was the 61 meeting of the battle of the bridge at Pete’s Field this past weekend. I am going to take excerpts from the article written by Judge Rick Bathum in the Football Program about the history of the rivalry.

Before there were Hornet on both sides of the White River there was the Buckley Mountaineers and the Enumclaw Tigers. After World War I the two teams played there first game of football. Enumclaw prevailed (like many years to follow) with a 26-0 victory. From 1920 to 1948 the two teams played each other a total of 31 times.

In 1948, the Enumclaw School District and the White River School District merged. The merger only lasted 4 years. Gone where the Buckley Mountaineers and the Enumclaw Tigers. It was officially called the White River Hornets. After the 1953-1954 school year the merger dissolved. Buckley assumed the name White River Hornets. Enumclaw became the Enumclaw Hornets and after the split the two teams did not play against each other for 15 years.

The rivalry was renewed in 1966 for about 30 years until 1995 when the Enumclaw Hornets went to 4A and joined the SPSL league while White River stayed at 3A. In 2006 the rivalry came back together as both teams joined the newly formed SPSL 3A.

This year it was very exciting as both teams came into the game fighting for a playoff spot. You win you are in and if you lose you are out. The stakes where high this year. After rough weather the past few weeks and a lot of football played by the local pee wee football programs the field at Pete’s was not much of a field but a mud pit.

As my wife Sophia said the game was not that exciting, well if you are expecting a lot of long runs, big passes and a lot of touchdowns then this Battle of the Bridge was not the game for you. It was a defense of battle and a game of field position. The Enumclaw Defense came to play on Friday night as they forced multiple turnovers along with only giving up 70 yards of total offense for the White River Hornets. The best pass defense in the SPSL shut down the White River passing attack to only 24 yards. The defense only allowed 1 first down in the 2nd half.

With a dominate performance from the EHS defense it was not till late in the game when the Hornets got on the scoreboard with a FG. With a 3-0 lead and time winding down my little brother got to score a touchdown on senior night which was fun to see.

Not only was Varsity victorious for the Hornets over the White River Hornets but all Enumclaw teams won including the JV and Freshman team. With a sweep I must say to my former college roomates from Buckley and White River Alums the years to come do not look that great for White River.

Hornets improve to 6-1. Friday night did not start out the way Hornet fans anticipated. The week preparing for Bonney Lake the weather did not always cooperate. On Tuesday a huge rain storm came rolling into Enumclaw causing I guess you would describe as flash floods on the streets.

We were anticipating rain for Friday nights contest but were not expecting the inch of rain in 1 hour like we got. The rain really started to fall about 20 minutes prior kick off and by the opening kick off it had turned Pete’s Field in a huge mud pit.

The Hornets kicked off and watched BL return the opening kick off for 6 points. Everything that could go wrong in the first quarter it seemed to for the Hornets as they quickly fell behind 20 to 0. The Hornets kept their composure and rallied back to score 33 unanswered.

The Hornet offense produced close to 500 total yards and the Hornet Defense really put the clamps down on the Panthers from Bonney Lake. The Panther offense had roughly 75 passing yards and 85 rushing. The Defense forced 3 turnovers. My brother Andrew had a successful night as he rushed for over 165 yards on 26 carries.

The win set up an exciting match up this coming week as the Hornets take on Peninsula for a battle of 2nd place and home field advantage week 1 into the state playoffs.

The Enumclaw High School Hornets traveled to Franklin Pierce High School this past Saturday night to take on the Cardinals. Although it was a low scoring affair there was plenty of offense. Coach Patterson and I were pleased as our defense scored for the first time this year causing a safety. That is two games thus far this year where we have had a safety in the game, this week we were on the better end.

In efforts to get the kids excited for the big game we put together a highlight tape of big plays from the week before and big plays from last years battle with Franklin Pierce up at Pete’s Pool. Saturday’s game did not showcase a last second goaline stand like last year but did feature the Hornets putting together a time consuming drive to hold onto the win late in the 4th quarter. The Hornets won 9 to 6. Definitely in an interesting score for a High School game but a Win is a Win!

The Hornets are 2 and 0 and are heading into this week’s game against Sumner High School who are 0 and 2. This will be the Hornets first home game of the year up at Pets’s Pool. Playing on natural grass will be nice for the boys and having a home cheering section will add to the excitement. The Hornets only get 4 home games this year which includes Homecoming. Hopefully the Hornets can put themselves in a good position after this week. If the Hornets win they will be 3 and 0 and roll into Tacoma to take on Lakes who are ranked #3 in the state.

The Hornets had the opportunity to scrimmage against Orting, Bothell, and Puyallup. We had the chance to play against Auburn Riverside, Timberline and Skyline on the final day where parents and friends had the opportunity to watch!

The Enumclaw High School Football team had their second annual car wash at Art Gamblin Motors Truck Center in Enumclaw. The car wash was in effort to raise money for the EHS Football players for their upcoming camp at University Puget Sound this summer. Each player pre-sold tickets for $10 to help pay for their own way to the camp. Every ticket a EHS Football player sold it went to his own balance towards camp. We had a huge turn out of family, friends, neighbors, local community members and the occasional passer by who wanted their vehicle washed.

Having the car wash this year at Art Gamblin Motors Truck Center offered a great location for the car wash. There were two car wash lines in front of the Gamblin Truck Center showroom with 4 stations. The first station was the wet station where one of our football players operated a hose and got the vehicle wet. The vehicle then rolled forward to station 2 where linebackers/quarterbacks/receiver/etc turned into a professional car washer. After being washed the driver would pull up to station 3 which was the rinse station. Then the final station was the dry station.

Coaching did not stop for most the EHS Football coaches as you heard a constant theme, “start from the top and work your way down” or “you missed this spot.”

The car washed was broken down into 4 shifts. The seniors washed cars from 8:00AM to 10:00AM followed by the Sophomores who washed cars from 10:00AM to 12:00PM. The Juniors started the afternoon shift which was from 12:00PM to 2:00PM and the incoming freshman had their first taste of High School football by washing cars from 2:00PM to 4:00PM. For pure numbers of who did the most, I think the Junior class pushed the most vehicles out. For the best wash job, the incoming Freshman did the best job.

Overall it was a successful day. The Football team projected that 250 vehicles where washed! There was a steady flow of 8 vehicles being washed at once, next year we might have to go to 3 lanes. The players raised over $4,000 to help to pay for their own way to camp!

It was great to see such a huge turn out and to see the support that Enumclaw has for Enumclaw Hornet Football. I can not wait till the Fall when Hornets make another attempt at the playoffs.

On May 7, 2009 the Y.E.A.S Committee had a kick off tailgate luncheon to go over the proposed plan for the new Enumclaw Stadium at Pete’s Pool.

The City of Enumclaw and Enumclaw School District have partnered together to re-design The Enumclaw Expo Center (Pete’s Pool) Football Stadium into a premier football and soccer facility. This is a community based fundraising effort and they need your help. A taskforce has been assembled to develop a design and fundraising effort for the improvements. Check out Your Enumclaw Area Stadium (Y.E.A.S) and see what you can do to help the cause at http://www.cityofenumclaw.net/

I have played at Pete’s Field all my life. I played 4-years with the Enumclaw Wolverines and 4-years at Enumclaw High School. I love this field and there is no better place in the state to play a football game. There is no track separating the fans from the field which creates an intimate way to watch football. After the game the fans scatter on the field to congratulate players as this is not found throughout many high school programs and stadiums. The giant field house as a backdrop makes the field look like it is made for a High School football movie.

Towards the end of the football season the field is more like a giant piece of dirt with 3 teams playing on it regularly the natural grass cannot handle all the wear and tear. Having field turf will allow Football and Soccer teams to practice more without concern of tearing the field apart and to play year round. With an artificial surface it allows consistant field conditions with not concern of mud or the dreaded hill. Pete’s Field does not meet WIAA regulations for post season play. If the Hornets were to host a home playoff game they would not be able to play on their home field because all playoff games have to be played on artificial playing surfaces.

Overall the tailgate luncheon was great. Judge Richard Bathum had a great presentation on the history of Pete’s Field.

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